Sayreville (4) at Spotswood (6) - Softball

It trailed by three runs, had left seven runners on base and had committed six errors -- all in the first 3½ innings.

Things did not look promising for Spotswood.

But pitcher Micaela McSpadden settled into a groove, the defense tightened up and the bats came alive as Spotswood rallied for a 6-4 victory over Sayreville in Spotswood.

Spotswood (9-1), a Group 2 team that is unbeaten in the Blue Division of the Greater Middlesex Conference, was taking on Sayreville (3-6), which plays in the Group 4 Red Division and had just handed J.P. Stevens its first loss of the season Thursday.

“We need to play seven innings of consistent softball, but this team is resilient and it never quits,’’ said first-year Spotswood coach Danielle Matlack, who spent many years coaching at South Brunswick. “We’re always trying to play teams in the upper divisions, so you have to come ready to play all the time. Once we settled down, we played very good softball.’’

Spotswood suffered through some uncharacteristic fielding problems in the early going, which led to three unearned runs as it trailed 4-1 heading to the bottom of the fourth.

After leaving the bases loaded in the first and third innings with just one run to show for it -- an RBI single by Emma Curci -- Spotswood scored four in the fourth to claim a 5-4 lead.

A two-run single by Jill Reed and an RBI single by Alexa Raba, coupled with two Sayreville errors, produced the runs. Raba drove in the final run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly to shortstop.

McSpadden, meanwhile, heated up with the lead. The West Chester-bound right-hander retired 10 of the last 11 batters she faced, striking out five. All told, she pitched a six-hitter, yielding one earned run with five strikeouts and no walks.

“If someone makes a mistake, we have eight players ready to step up,’’ said McSpadden, who also went 3-for-4 and scored two runs. “We’re there for each other. We never let a bad inning get us down. Even when we’re losing, we have confidence in ourselves as a team.’’

Reed was 2-for-2 with two RBI and two walks, Raba drove in two runs and Samantha Mohr was 2-for-2 and two runs for Spotswood, which collected nine hits.

Erin Fitzsimmons gave up two earned runs in six innings with seven strikeouts and four walks for Sayreville, while six of her teammates had at least one hit.